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An Easter Carol
An Easter Carol is the 21st episode of ShapeTales. It is the sequel to The Star of Christmas, and a parody of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Plot It is the day before Easter, and the local church is scheduled to have a new window unveiling service at the next day's morning service. Ebenezer Rectangle, who owns a local factory, used to attend church with his grandma when he was little, but no longer goes. Reverend Gilbert and his son Edmond agree to pay Ebenezer a visit and invite him to the Easter service. Cavis Appythart (Jimmy the Circle) and Ebenezer's nephew, Millward Phelps (Alvin the Triangle), are working in Ebenezer's factory to repay him after burning down his theater during the previous episode. Cavis and Millward disagree over who should approach Ebenezer and ask for a day off for Easter. When the duo ask, Ebenezer lectures them about the history of how his grandmother started making Easter eggs. Ebenezer recalls that before his grandma died, she told him to tell everyone "Easter means no death". Rectangle misunderstands this, thinking that as long as he makes Easter eggs he will keep his grandma alive forever. When Reverend Gilbert and Edmond arrive, Ebenezer explains that he plans to tear down the church and build an Easterland theme park in its place. When the others protest, Ebenezer gets angry and ejects them all from the factory. The townsfolk soon learn about the news and are worried about the demolition of the church, but cannot stop Rectangle since he owns the property on which the church is located. That night, while Ebenezer is asleep, he sees a vision of his grandma telling him he has missed the point of Easter, and at the stroke of midnight, he will receive a second visitor to help him understand. Meanwhile, Cavis and Millward are trying to break into the factory to steal the Easterland plans despite being on probation for stealing the Star of Christmas in the previous episode. Mr. Rectangle then wakes up from his vision and then intends to stay awake for the visitor. He falls asleep waiting for the visitor, and at the stroke of midnight, a clockwork egg suddenly opens and an angel named Hope emerges. She wakes Ebenezer and starts showing him Easter Past, beginning with a church service. A young Ebenezer and his grandma are in attendance, and Grandma Rectangle is trying to get Ebenezer to understand the story of Easter but the young Ebenezer is mainly focused on selling his eggs and wondering why the egg he received is empty. Next, Hope shows Ebenezer Easter from a year ago, when Ebenezer first started making plastic Easter eggs. He talks to an inventor named Seymour and gets Seymour to agree to invent plastic chickens that can make plastic eggs. Seymour is not paid, but Ebenezer does give him an early free pass to Easterland much to Hope's dismay. Hope and Ebenezer return to Easter Present and visit the Reverend's house, where he and Moyer are discussing about the church. It is revealed that Grandma Rectangle paid for all of the church windows herself, and that just before she died she commissioned the new window that they were going to unveil on Easter morning. Ebenezer remains adamant that remaining loyal to his grandma's business and Easterland is the only way to maintain her memory. Hope and Ebenezer then learn that Edmond is sick and will die within a year if nothing changes. Ebenezer is shocked and does not understand why Edmond's parents are so calm with such news. Hope then takes Ebenezer back into the church and teaches him the story of Jesus' life, his Crucifixion, and eventually his Resurrection. With a deeper understanding of Easter's eternal significance, Ebenezer finally accepts his grandmother's passing. Hope then welcomes Rectangle to 'Easter Future'. The church is about to be demolished, the orphanage is gone, Little Edmond has died, and without the Hope of Easter, the town's once-brave policeman has lost the courage to stop criminals. Hope disappears back into the egg and Ebenezer pleads for her to come back because they need her. He rushes back to the church to try to stop the demolition and wakes up. He finds out that it is still Easter Present and that he still has a chance to prevent Easter Future from occurring. Ebenezer rushes as quickly as he can to the church, and arrives just in time to stop the demolition crew. Millward suddenly rushes in and shouts that the factory is about to explode and that Cavis is trapped inside. Ebenezer rushes back into the factory to save Cavis, and they escape by being catapulted out of one of the factory's windows by one of the machines just as the factory explodes. It starts raining Easter eggs across the town and Ebenezer promises to help fix up the orphanage and get young Edmond get the medicine he needs with the money he has left. Fun Facts Trivia *This is the first Easter episode. *This is the last episode for several things: **The last episode of ShapeTales to be done entirely by Big World. **The last episode Scott Nelson worked on. **The last holiday episode to be filmed in 4:3. **The last episode to not use the ShapeTales Theme Song until Saint Petersburg. *This is the only Easter special filmed in 4:3. *According to Mike in both commentaries, he got this episode idea in 1999 from a open sourced writer when they're were pitching show ideas. He liked the story, but someone else suggested they should a new Christmas special. So Mike decided to make the Christmas one first, then Easter. *According to Mike, he came up with the climax of the factory exploding after flying from Los Angeles. *The pictures at the Reverend's living room are a self portrait of Charles Dickens and Grandmum's Cottage. Tim Hodge confirmed that he painted the self portrait. *On several TV broadcasts, this episode was split in two parts. Remarks *It was never explained how Edmund became ill after the Christmas events. *Little Trixie suddenly gained a British accent, which she lacked from the previous special. *In the previous special, the church's stained-glass windows have different patterns without a consistent picture. Here however, the windows each depict a moment in Jesus' life to tell his story. *The fireplace is glowing without any fire. Tim and Mike state it's just embers. *When the Rectangles first barged in the church, Jean Claude was in front. But when he talks to the Reverend, he's in the back. *In the credits, Percy's name was seen despite not appearing. It might possible he was one of the worker rectangles. **Also in the credits, Edmund is credited as "Edmond". *The credits states the video was released in 2003, but it didn't came out until February 2004. Although this could be when the video was finalized. Goofs *The next scenes when Rectangle was planning to help Edmund is fuzzing compare to the in-between scenes. Inside References *Reverend fainting is similar what he did in the first QBT Alvin episode. *The tree seen at the graveyard is the same one from Stanley. *Because it's a sequel to the Star of Christmas, a few past references are mentioned. **Cavis mentioning they're working for Rectangle after burning down his theater. Fast Forward *Millward lifting Cavis would be used again in Big River Rescue. Category:ShapeTales